What Intrinsic motivation drives your colleagues with Moving Motivators

What intrinsic motivation drivers are amongst your coworkers? People are the most critical part of an organization, and managers must do all they can to keep them active, creative, and motivated. The management 3.0 practice of talking about your Moving Motivators clarifies what motivates you and team members. I’ve prepared a workshop to help us gain insights into colleagues’ intrinsic drives, using an hour in our Xebia Knowledge Exchange schedule. So, any colleague could join.

My prepared structure for the hour

1. Welcome and land
   Let people pair up with the question:
   What brought you here?
   What do you hope to explore in the upcoming hour? (5 minutes)
   Aiming to walk outdoors to enjoy the weather and fresh air.
2. Understand motivators (silence 2 minutes, pitch 8 minutes)
   Let them understand the 10 different motivators. I shared the definition of stencils with two people. Which one is somewhat unclear to you?
3. Filter motivator (15 minutes)
   Aim to distill which motivator resonates the most with your drivers.
   To simplify the question, each person got a deck of the 10 motivators. I had two formal ones, so with Karteikarten I created 3 other decks myself. Then I said they could blindly pick 3 motivators, and think which one they would like to trade and why. We were four people, so we did it together. But if there were more couples, I would recommend doing this within the couple. Then you have more time to go deep and confess your inner thoughts, which fosters psychological safety.
4. Insights sharing (8 minutes).
   I asked the group which insights they gained from this practice to gain insight into how meaningful this was. Pop-up style: What insights did you gain while doing this exercise?Time management 60 minutes – 5- 10 – 15 – 8 = 22 min margin.
   

   Formal and self-created cards to discuss intrinsic motivation drivers

Reality | Delve into intrinsic motivation while using Moving Motivators in a group of 4

Four people showed up.

1. Welcome – felt appropriate. We gave the most unfamiliar person more time to introduce his origins and what he hopes to explore.
2. Understanding the 10 moving motivators
   

   Curiosity: I have plenty of things to investigate and to think about

   Honor: I feel proud that my personal values are reflected in how I work.

   Acceptance: The people around me approve of what I do and who I am.

   Mastery: My work challenges my competence but it is still within my abilities.

   Power: There’s enough room for me to influence what happens around me.

   Freedom: I am independent of others with my work and my responsibilities.

   Relatedness: I have good social contacts with the people in my work.

   Order: There are enough rules and policies for a stable environment.

   Goal: My purpose in life is reflected in the work that I do.

   Status: My position is good, and I am recognized by the people who work with me.

   Discussion points: Definition of Moving Motivators

   Freedom was discussed for its definition; one of us said, “It feels like fuck my team,” as you do not behave within a complex system. We guess it resembles a desire for enough autonomy, where you feel you do not need to ask for permission too much. I propose this definition for Freedom: I have enough autonomy to progress quickly in my responsibilities.

   Also, we felt that Status and Power might correlate highly in practice. Or what does that say about our environment?

   Goal and Honor are both about personal values, and this feels redundant. The goal could be redefined, as we were missing a motivator, and a clear purpose and understanding of your part in the complex endeavors of your organization are missing. I propose the following definition: It is clear enough how I contribute to the bigger purpose of my organization.

   My hypothesis is that the acronym desire trumped the best labeling of motivators too much. I doubt whether this set covers the diverse set of intrinsic motivations of people. Purpose was missing, and autonomy was covered in an overly individual definition. I would be honored if you updated your definitions.

   CHAMPFROGS = The 10 Motivators according to Jurgen Appelo

3. Evaluation filtering method
   The method worked well to start with 3 moving motivators; it made it easier to determine which of the three suits you best. You could have continued by serving another small set (2 or 3) and picking from them to iterate, but two of the four specifically knew which ones they would like to add.
   
4. Insights applying Moving Motivators to gain insights into the intrinsic motivation drivers of your colleagues

In addition to the discussion of definitions, we had the following insights:

1. 1. How does it complement other team deep dive frameworks like Team Dynamics, Disc Profiles or Belbin? In our group’s opinion, all are chameleons; you anticipate what’s normal and maybe missing in group dynamics. We, as consultants, acknowledge that outcomes vary widely between contexts. But these motivators seem more persevering.
   2. Knowing what motivates your colleagues may help you meet their needs. For example, if you know a colleague who resonates with status, you can mention his achievements or his support for your achievements during a larger gathering.
   3. The format with paper cards worked nicely, but next time, I would investigate a bigger set of motivators. My first source would be nonviolent communication, as it has a big list of potential needs for people to refer to and make their needs more explicit.
   4. The hour spent felt valuable in gaining deeper insights into what drives me and how satisfied I am with my current position. Another person had the same.

Conclusion: The structure of the interactive session felt appropriate. We had a good discussion, distributed among the people present. When will I apply this practice to delve into the intrinsic motivation? If I need to collaborate deeply with a set of individuals for a sustainable period, this feels like a good team-building activity relevant for the professional context. Also, when I feel employee engagement may be at stake with the customer, I can raise this as an issue and propose this intervention. If people around you know how they can contribute to your needs at work, they can foster your engagement with small changes in behavior.

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